


Folie a Deux

by Sliceofmooncake (Aesoteric)



Category: The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, District 1 Cato, F/M, Prostitution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-04
Updated: 2015-11-04
Packaged: 2018-04-30 00:50:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5144246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aesoteric/pseuds/Sliceofmooncake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by the way Glimmer and Cato behaved in the "Hunger Games" movie, an AU where he was her partner instead of Marvel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Folie a Deux

It was inevitable. The day she’d pushed her sister down the stairs her family had known she was for the Games. Even as they rushed Gleam off for spinal surgery, her parents had fluttered around her, touching her hair, shaking her shoulders. So very proud.

“Oh my darling,” her mother’s voice was high in her throat. “Of course. I see it now.”

*

The new school they’d sent her too was much more interesting. She still learned letters, numbers and history, but on the half hour her favorite Instructor would take her outside to learn about weapons. At first it was about learning how they felt and moved, and then she learned to use them on someone else. Together she and her Instructor shredded the practice dummies until Glimmer was shaking and covered in sweat. Under the black braided eyebrows that made him look like a wolf, the Instructor had grinned and tousled her hair.

“Good girl. Go shower.”

*

Golden girl. She knew it too. Everyone loved her--well, everyone but Gleam, who’d really never forgiven her even if her back was fine now. When she was fourteen, Glimmer took off her clothes and looked at her herself in the mirror and she could find no flaw. She was tight as a drum, smooth everywhere but the calluses on her hands that she’d begged the beautician to keep. And now...she passed her hands over her emerging curves. Ripening like a pear. The sponsors were already asking for her picture and the stats her Instructor kept. When the time came, she’d be ready. 

*

It was inevitable. She wasn’t allowed to practice with the other Volunteers regularly, as she didn’t want to give away her secrets, but then her Instructor had nodded towards someone.

“Cato. A real contender, maybe the only one among the whole lot.”

She gulped down water but she wasn’t paying attention to him. She was watching the golden boy with the sword. Power, form, grace, battle-rage pouring off him in red waves. When he stopped, he turned and looked at her. He knew without a word, the same way she had known. She didn’t realize that she’d crushed the metal cup until she looked back down at her hand.

Introductions were practically pointless but they shook hands anyway. Between the two of them everything had already been said. They took a walk after practice. Glimmer knew her Instructor was wondering if she’d try to kill Cato the way she’d killed a few others, but she didn’t even have the poison inserts in her fingernails. They sat on the balcony overlooking the city.

“It’ll be the two of us.”

“Yes.”

Golden boy, golden girl, perfectly matched. There could be no other. Their calluses scraped and clung, and they held hands as the sun set.

*

They were officially An Item; their Instructors had taken the idea and run with it. They were in the District 1 news together, wore matching outfits, even trained together. The cameras loved them, turned them into young titans, movie stars, gods. By the time they got to the Games they’d be invincible. A pair of lions roaring at the sun. They were not allowed to be alone together for too long.

“We could, you know, and just not tell them.” She’d scraped a nail over his chest through the fabric of his shirt and he’d shivered. He’d caught her hand and flattened it.

“Save it for the Game.”

That’s what their Instructors had said. Save your energy, don’t get distracted. Plus, he’d flatly told Glimmer that the sponsors would want her to be a virgin, so she’d better stay one. Honestly, Glimmer didn’t see what the big deal was when doctors could make it look like she’d never done anything, but but she didn’t want the hassle of everyone screeching at her. She was supposed to be sexy, but not sexually available. The photo shoots she and Cato had done hadn’t left much to the imagination, but the public was weird like that.

*

Being Chosen was no surprise really, but her blood fired anyway. Cato’d grabbed her around the waist and swung her while they screamed at the cameras. Then there were parties and training, interviews and training, photo ops and training. But it was with Cato, so it was all right. One day he had her pinned to the mat with a knife at her throat and she’d said,

“If you kill me, I want you to do it like this.” She arched underneath him until the knife bit. “I want to see your face.” Panting, he’d stared at her with hot eyes, which gave her the opportunity to flip him and squeeze his ribs with her thighs until he creaked.

“If you kill me, I want you to do it like this.” He laughed in painful hitches until she’d started laughing with him and rolled off.

*

A week before the Games she’d gone to wake Cato up with breakfast and seen a woman with permanent makeup coming out of his room, jacket slung over her shoulder. She was inside before she knew it, ripping the sheets off the bed.

“Who is she?” She grabbed him by the throat, he tried to pry her off and when that didn’t work he slammed her back into a wall until she gasped. She went for his eyes. He broke her fingers. She smashed a sculpture and nearly gutted him with it before he got her to the ground with her arms pinned behind her. “Who is she? That slut in the hallway, I saw her. Who was she?” Her face smashed into the carpet she screamed “Why not me?” She was crying, covered in snot and so mad she could have ripped his head off because he was supposed to be hers. He was shaking and screaming back at her,

“I had to, the sponsors wanted it. They said no one would take me seriously if I didn’t. I had to. One of the sponsors bought her for me.”

When she stopped trying to get up he let her go and stood up, backing away. He was still naked. Glimmer glared at him; he was perfect, she was perfect, they were supposed to be together.

“Was she good? Did you like fucking her?” She spat the words at him.

“Yes. I don’t know. I guess.” He walked to his dresser and pulled out a pair of pants.

“You guess? Couldn’t you even tell?”

“She was a pro, okay? She was good.” Cato scrubbed a hand through his hair and sat down on the floor a distance away. “She wasn’t you.” The loudest thing in the room was their breathing. 

When the medics fixed her up later they checked between her legs, and her mentor, Clavius, flat-out asked if she’d had sex with Cato. 

“No.” That’ll never happen now.

“Good. Now be a smart girl and pull yourself together, you’ve got an audience to impress and patrons to woo. Just like Cato does.” He clapped her on the shoulder and turned to leave.

“Would you have bought me a hooker too if the sponsors hadn’t wanted me to be a virgin?” He paused a moment in the doorway but did not answer. 

*

She practiced her smile until no one could tell it was fake. She smiled and posed and posed and smiled again. And when she wasn’t doing that or training she went to her room and stared at the ceiling. 

“You’re eating dinner with Cato tonight.”

She turned her head to look at her mentor. He was standing with his arms folded across his chest. “You and Cato will be in front of the world tomorrow, take advantage of the time you have left.”

Dinner was like a birthday party at a funeral. The food was lavish, everyone dressed to the teeth and laughing like they weren’t actually going to be killing people tomorrow. There was a cold zone around her and Cato. They stared at each other from across the room. He was begging her to understand something but for once she couldn’t tell what it was. They were too far apart. She got up to use the bathroom and didn’t come back. She leaned against the floor-to-ceiling windows and looked out. She knew it was Cato when the door opened.

“Glimmer.” Just her name and then nothing. No one moved. Then, “I didn’t want to. Clavius said I had to if I wanted to get sponsors. I didn’t want to.” Insistently, “Glimmer.”

Without turning around she reached a hand back and he took it. Eyes closed she turned around and leaned forward until her forehead bumped his chest. They stayed that way as long as they could. In the morning when they rode out to meet the world, they held hands where everyone could see.


End file.
